Bundesliga teams with Lagardère and Supponor for virtual ads on international broadcasts
March 14 – The Bundesliga is to introduce virtual advertising over its international broadcast feeds from the start of next season.
Goals reports £6m profit as it looks to expand in US with City Football Group partnership
March 14 – Goals Soccer Centres, an operator of outdoor small-sided football centres, has announced year end profits to December 2017 of £6 million on revenue of £33 million.
Morocco woos West Asian 2026 vote as Nascimento calls for African solidarity
March 13 – With just days to go before the two 2026 World Cup contenders have to hand in their bid books to FIFA, Moroccan officials have met with a key group of Asian nations to try and gain crucial support ahead of the vote in June.
Greek government steps in to suspend Super League indefinitely
March 13 – Greece’s Super League has been suspended “indefinitely” by the Greek government following the pitch intervention in a top of the table clash between PAOK and AEK Athens by Ivan Savvidis, owner of PAOK. Savvidis entered the field carrying a holstered handgun on his hip and allegedly threatened the referee after a 90th minute goal was disallowed.
Germans bring in Burson-Marsteller Sport for ‘top priority’ EURO 2024 bid campaign
March 13 – The German Football Association (DFB) has appointed Burson-Marsteller Sport to advise on international strategy and communication for its bid to host the 2024 European Championships.
Nervous tension as spectre of England being pulled out of 2018 World Cup looms
March 13 – When British foreign secretary Boris Johnson first raised the notion of England boycotting this summer’s World Cup in protest at what has been dubbed spy-gate, he was roundly condemned and his office was quick to issue a clarification saying he meant officials and politicians rather than the team itself.
Webb loses appeal against $1m FIFA fine
March 13 – Former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb has lost an appeal against a CHF1 million ($1.05 million) fine imposed on him by FIFA for his part in the corruption scandal that left the governing body of the game in tatters.
1.3m tickets for Russia 2018 allocated as sales restart today
March 13 – FIFA have confirmed that 568,448 tickets have been allocated following the second random selection draw sales window from 5 December to 31 January, on top of the 735,168 tickets allocated during the first sales phase, making a total of 1,303,616 tickets allocated to date.
After voting in VAR at IFAB, Scots now discuss whether they should bring it in at home
March 13 – The Scottish FA is to meet Scottish Premier League officials to discuss whether to implement video assistant referees.
West Ham mayhem plays out to a packed house
March 13 – West Ham’s London Stadium bubble has well and truly burst after the scenes last weekend where pitch invasions and a toxic atmosphere from an increasingly disaffected supporter base is turning the Premier League’s newest venue into its ugliest. Even so, the stadium was still packed to its 57,000 capacity.
Liverpool’s Salah adds €74.7m to his transfer value since season start
March 13 – Liverpool’s Mohammed Salah is now worth €74.7 million than he was on 1 September 2017, when the summer transfer window closed, according the latest stats by the CIES Football Observatory.
James Dostoyevsky: Gunning for the top. A new style of Greek football ownership
Carrying a gun into a football stadium is forbidden by Greek Law. Reaching for the gun in a threatening fashion takes this to the next level. Demanding the ref to change a decision at gun-point is an altogether novel approach to winning a title. But when PAOK of Thessaloniki scored an offside goal in the 90th minute to win the match, that’s exactly what happened. The goal was not given and the proverbial hit the fan.
Gun-slinging PAOK owner Savvidis threatens referee at Greek Super League clash
By Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw
March 12 – Greek’s football chaos took an ugly turn for the worse on Sunday after gun-carrying PAOK owner Ivan Savvidis stormed on to the pitch to threaten a referee after a goal was disallowed in the top of the table clash with AEK Athens.
Tackling Matchfixing: Macedo de Medeiros and Van Seggelen call for more action
By Andrew Warshaw
March 12 – Football is losing the war against matchfixing despite the rhetoric put out by established bodies attempting to tackle the sport’s most critical issue.
David Owen: Premier League club boards should enjoy the good times while they can
The good news for Premier League club owners: top-tier English football has never been more profitable. The bad news: this is probably as good as it is going to get for at least the next five years – an age in terms of media technology.